A PIE STORY

Originally I volunteered to make pies for Thanksgiving dinner, and my hostess responded that she and her daughter love to make pies, so I planned to make something else for the traditional feast. Then she wrote that she had searched 5 stores in Puerto Vallarta and couldn't find canned pumpkin. Alas, her next email revealed that her oven had broken, so could I make the pies. Oui, bien sur!

First, bake the pumpkin!

Next, solve the transportation problem, since I would have to take 2 buses to get to my friend's house for the hour-long ride to San Pancho.
I scavenged some styrofoam from discarded boxes and constructed a "pie tower," so one pie wouldn't crush another.

One pie could go into this box originally designed for a DVD player.

Yes, it would work! The "pie tower" could sit on top of the DVD box, and with more foam as a brace, wouldn't slide around in the bag.

The bag.....in Mexico one sees people lugging HUGE bags onto buses. Now I would be among them.

Next, the ingredients: Lard obtained from a local butcher...no polyunsaturated fats here. Straight unadulterated fat calories. It's a bit on the tan side...not like that white lard my mom used.

Close-up of the pecans, and the baked pumpkin, ready to puree. Which should I make, besides pumpkin pie, pecan or apple???

Getting organized on the small table in my kitchen. Not quite enough counter space for this operation.

The lard has been chilled, though it's still much softer than what I'm used to and the mixture of lard and flour is not so crumbly. I add the water, and the dough instantly forms a very soft ball. How can I roll this out??? I sitck in in the freezer to chill a bit while I peel apples.

After chilling the dough for about 15 minutes, I manage to make a rectangle of the dough and sprinkle some of the reserved crumbs on top (mom's secret to flaky crust.) I used a glass to roll out the dough. Then my neighbor, Erica, lent me her rolling pin....she wisely had made her pies the day before.

First pie crust rolled out, with lots of fingerprints to patch it together. This dough isn't acting at ALL like the pie crust I make in Indiana. My brothers and I were schooled at our mother's knee, and pie-making (and lard) is in our blood.

OMG! THIS is what happens when I fold the crust over so I can pick it up and put it in the pie pan!

And THIS is what happens when I actually put it in the pan! I had to smoosh it all back together with my fingers and pray it would stick together to hold the filling.

The aftermath. Finally the pies are in the oven...now to clean up!

I forgot to mention that my oven has no temperature markings, just a plus and a minus. Hmmmmm, how does one tell the correct temperature? Back to Erica's, where I borrowed an oven thermometer. So I started out at supposedly 425 deg. F for 15 minutes and supposedly reduced the heat to 375 for 30 minutes. At one point, this required opening the oven and turning on a huge fan to reduce the heat. I almost fainted when, despite all this, my pumpkin pie turned out nearly black on top! How could I take this pie out in public? No time to make another. I pictured my mother's ashes fluttering around in her crypt.

Pie #2...Apple pecan, from a recipe I discovered on the internet. Pecans only slightly blackened due to the vagaries of the oven.

And yes, both pies neatly packaged and ready for the bus rides.

Mission accomplished. We arrive at the beautiful home of my friend, Ellen, on a sunny Thanksgiving afternoon. No need for sweaters and overcoats here!

And this is our view while we wait for the turkey to finish cooking...it's on the barbecue grill, since Ellen's oven is still broken.

Swimming anyone?

And here it is: Thanksgiving Dinner in the Tropics. Everything we love: succulent turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, 2 kinds of cranberry sauce, and a few green veggies to salve our conscience.

And guess what? FOUR pies for 8 people. Turned out Ellen's daughter brought canned pumpkin from California, so she made a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie in the toaster oven. Ellen voluteered to cover the top of mine with whipped cream to camouflage its darkened top (a gallant attempt save my reputation), but I declined, se we put it on the side. I have to say, the flavor tasted just like home, though the crust was more powdery than flaky. Hearsay is that Mexican flour has little or no gluten which would explain the softness of the dough. I have not been able to verify this, though I know different wheats produce flours of varying gluten contents. Let me know, Dear Readers, if you can shed light on this baking dilemma. And, by the way, the Apple Pecan pie (which mom would say is "gilding the lily," was really yummy, though first prize from the small circle of voters went to the pecan pie.